During the regular season, the Bishop Hendricken soccer team scored 10 total goals in 14 games.

Predictably enough, the Hawks didn’t win a ton of games with that output, as they tallied just three victories and tied three others.

But there was a silver lining – the Hawks were almost never out of a game. Their defense was too good.

In a year where bad luck haunted Hendricken’s offensive side, the Hawks nearly qualified for the state semifinals. Sweeper Shane Davidson was the anchor of that defense.

A senior captain, Davidson led from his spot in the back, as teams scored just 22 total goals against Hendricken.

“I love that either way – trying to stop them was huge,” Davidson said. “We realized that we were in a lot of 1-0 games. In practice I was extra tough on some kids because we knew that we needed that hard defense for 90 minutes to win games.”

Davidson and his teammates were heavy underdogs entering the postseason, but they pulled off a big upset in the first round with a 1-0 victory over North Kingstown.

Hendricken had allowed four goals to the Skippers during the regular season. But in the postseason, Davidson and his back line buckled down and kept a clean sheet.

“The big win was the NK win,” Davidson said. “That was huge, and it was a big confidence booster.”

That victory moved Hendricken to the quarterfinals, where it took on eventual state runner-up La Salle. Once again, Davidson and the Hawks’ defense led the way, keeping the Rams off the scoreboard for the majority of the game before La Salle finally broke through and escaped with a 2-0 victory.

Still, Hendricken had shaken off a three-win regular season to win a playoff game and nearly win another.

“It was a good season,” Davidson said. “It was a difficult journey. We had a lot of young teammates. As a captain, for me, I tried to help the underclassmen learn throughout the year. The scoring was very unfortunate. It was unlucky. We hit the post – just bad luck. But we had a tough crew.”